INTRODUCING MY VICE-COUNTY Outer Hebrides (v.c. 110) PAUL A. SMITH
T
he Outer Hebrides is the 15th largest vicecounty by land area, but it represents some unique challenges. The islands are in three main inhabited groups (Lewis and Harris, which are a single land mass; the Uists; Barra and Vatersay), which therefore have transport links (ferries and planes) to the mainland. But there are so many outlying islands, island groups and fragments of the main islands that it has the most hectads of any vice-county: 89; and 20 of these are not accessible from the inhabited islands without a further boat trip. So spare a thought for the recorders trying to get some records from all the hectads during a 10-year date class – that’s not likely to be feasible. However, it is undeniable that islands have a particular draw and that people want to remember and record their experiences when they do reach them. So there are many articles describing trips to such places and giving species lists (often very short for small islands well offshore, so that a day trip costs many £ per species!). Indeed St Kilda is so much an attraction that it must have more pages written 34
BSBI NEWS 146 | January 2021
Watery view of the south of North Uist. Photographs by the author.
about it than any comparably-sized area of Britain and Ireland, but with a rather short species list (see Crawley, 2017). So the least well-known parts of v.c. 110 are in fact the parts of the main, inhabited islands which are a long walk from the nearest access – particularly the central Lewis peatlands which do not even have the attraction of a hill to walk up or a coastline to visit. I got hooked by the Outer Hebrides (as other people have before me – there are lots of examples of repeat visitors) following a BSBI field meeting in 1994, and after several years of regular holiday visits generating records I was invited to become joint Vice-county Recorder with Richard Pankhurst, later becoming sole recorder when he passed away in 2013. So for many years I have made solo trips and family holidays. It’s a long way from Southampton – usually overnight with two drivers, though it takes two days to drive on your own. But I find the arrangement works well for me – I focus on recording full-time when I am there, and deal with specimens and records in my spare time when I’m
